1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscopic tool assembly, and more particularly, to a clip which detachably couples a endoscopic tool and an endoscope to provide an endoscopic tool assembly.
2. Description of the Background Art
Endoscopic surgery has recently become a widely-practiced surgical procedure. For example, laparoscopic surgery (i.e., one type of endoscopic surgery) generally involves small incisions through the navel and abdominal wall to view or operate on organs or tissue located in the abdominal cavity. Additionally, a camera, optical fiber or lens (i.e., scope) is placed in the area to aid the surgeon in guiding the endoscopic instrument to the particular area to be observed or operated upon.
In the conventional art, endoscopic surgery is generally preformed using elongated instruments slidably inserted through a trocar. The trocar generally includes a cannula or trocar sleeve (i.e., a hollow sheath or sleeve with a central lumen) and a sharp obturator received in the cannula. The trocar may be used to penetrate the abdominal wall or chest. The obturator is withdrawn from the cannula after the intra-abdominal end of the trocar is in the abdominal cavity, and the cannula remains in the abdominal wall throughout the surgical procedure, allowing the introduction of various surgical instruments (e.g., an endoscopic tool). Trocars are available in different sizes, as are cannulae, to accommodate various instruments. However, in some cases endoscopic surgery is performed in a naturally-occurring body cavity (e.g., the uterus).
Manipulation of the instruments (including an endoscopic tool) during endoscopic surgery is generally observed through the scope which may be inserted through a separate trocar into the operating cavity. Alternatively, the scope may be contained within a surgical tube which also contains surgical instruments. In any event, the operator must perform the surgical manipulations using an effector unit, such as scissors, dissectors, graspers and retractors located on the end of the surgical instrument remotely located from the operator's hands and confined within a relatively small cavity created for the operation. Therefore, the images provided by the endoscope must be accurate and reliable.
However, because the endoscope is typically inserted into the surgical area adjacent to the surgical instrument, the parallax resulting from the acute angle formed between the endoscope and the surgical instrument may restrict or distort the surgeon's view of the surgical site. Thus, the surgeon may have only a limited view of the working end of the surgical instrument.
Further, because the endoscopic tool must often be rotated to perform an appropriate surgical procedure, what is needed in the art is a surgical instrument assembly or clip, which is capable of reliably and accurately detachably coupling a scope and an endoscopic tool such that relative movement between the endoscope and endoscopic tool, as well as undesirable parallax resulting from an acute angle formed between the endoscope and endoscopic tool, may be prevented.